SEASIDE >> Monterey County has the fifth largest teacher shortage in California, according to a study by a CSU Monterey Bay professor.

The analysis done by Mark O’Shea, coordinator for the credentialing program at CSUMB, revealed that Monterey County has the fourth highest demand for teachers in the state when adjusted for the size of the population.

“I looked at the number of posted positions and compared countywide population in November,” O’Shea said. “The other three counties are extremely rural counties and very far from large municipal areas. But our shortage in the area is substantially greater than in Los Angeles, Orange County or the (San Francisco) Bay Area.”

There were 267 job openings in Monterey County, when divided by the county population of 428,000 gave it a denominator that placed it high on the list, behind Lake, Yolo, Colusa and Amador counties.

The demand for teachers spiked in the 2014-15 school year, after California changed the method used to fund schools and gave new money to schools that serve large amounts of English learners and low-income children. Those new funds allowed for the hiring of more teachers.

In response to the shortage, school districts are getting more aggressive in their recruiting tactics and more job fairs are being planned than in the past. The Monterey Peninsula Unified School District will host one later this month, and the Monterey County Office of Education will have a spring career fair for the first time. CSUMB will also have a special section for education at its bi-annual career fair, which usually attracts at least a dozen potential employers.

“What we’re really doing now at MCOE is recruitment year-round,” said Rosa Coronado, assistant superintendent of human resources. “I’ve seen the report that Dr. O’Shea put together and it’s pretty severe. This year we decided to improve our services and it will be the first spring recruitment fair of MCOE.”

In addition to recruiting for teachers, MCOE will also present a workshop called “So, you want to be a teacher?” for people thinking about entering the profession.

Part of the problem is a precipitous decline in the number of people entering the teaching preparation programs, which dropped from more than 44,000 in 2008 to 26,000 in 2012, according to a report by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing.

At the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District, which will host its third annual job recruitment fair on Feb. 28, the need for teachers has expanded from the traditional math and special education to English and multiple subjects.

“We’ll be going to CSUMB and multiple fairs throughout the state of California and even out of state,” said Judy Durand, executive director for human resources at MPUSD. “Last year we hired close to 100 new teachers, and I don’t have a reason to believe it won’t be similar to that through all the subject areas. We have over 20 schools so five new hires for school on average is not unreasonable for a district our size.”

At CSUMB, the bi-annual job fair began including a special section for education recruiting three years ago, said career adviser Thomas Rogers. Last year, 100 potential employers attended, and 20 of those were educational institutions.

“As far as the school districts are concerned, this event is a teacher’s fair. That’s how they market it,” Rogers said.

This year, Rogers expect to have around 12 to 15 school districts recruiting at the job fair. He has noticed candidates walking out of the fair with a job offer, a sign of the high demand for teachers.

“It’s interesting to watch that happen,” he said. “We notice these recruiters hungry for folks who are ready to teach; they’re doing these events trying to get as many people as they can.”